


The Hood Returns

by ArlyssTolero



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:08:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23672080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArlyssTolero/pseuds/ArlyssTolero
Summary: After his defeat at the hands of Ra's al Ghul, Oliver Queen returns to Starling City and discovers what has been happening in his absence. He is not pleased, and returns to his old tactics to deal with the threats to his city before having a pointed conversation with his team.
Relationships: Oliver Queen & Team Arrow
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	The Hood Returns

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow.
> 
> A/N: So, this is a little something that jumped in my head and grew rapidly after I read Phillipe363's story about Oliver telling Quentin the truth about Sara after coming back from the duel.
> 
> Edit from 2020: Thanks to Phillipe363 I was able to recover this story.

Oliver Queen entered the Foundry after having made his way back to Starling City following his duel with Ra's al Ghul, his brow furrowing as he found it empty. A quick check of their systems registered their 'mobile unit' (aka Diggle's black van) smack dab in the middle of the Glades. Oliver pulled up the CCTV cameras in that area through their tap into the network and felt dread curdle in his stomach. Through the grainy feed, he could see Roy, Diggle, Ted Grant, and what could only be Laurel in Sara's outfit leading the people of the Glades against enforcers for some gang. Oliver pulled out the cell phone he used to contact Lance and set it to call on speaker as he began prepping his gear. "I thought you were gone," Quentin said by way of greeting when he picked up (Felicity tended to call on her own cell phone despite Oliver's wishes to the contrary, one of the many things that would need to be pruned from their practices once this crisis in the Glades was over). "Your friend in the red seemed to think you were."

"I almost was, Detective," Oliver replied, beginning to pack a veritable arsenal into his quiver and beginning to undress. "Tell me what the hell's been happening. The CCTV footage tells a grim story going down and I don't have much time."

"In short, a guy named Danny Brickwell's made a bid to seize control of the Glades and succeeded," Quentin replied. "Your team and Sara have been trying to figure out how to bring him down, not that they're telling me much. Maybe after this you can get all the details and let me know? And what did you mean, a grim picture?"

"It looks like they've got every citizen still in the Glades trying to fight this Brickwell's thugs alongside them," Oliver said, zipping up his uniform and pulling the mask down over his eyes before raising the hood. He slung the quiver around his chest and checked the cameras. "And they're not exactly winning."

"Damn, and I can't send officers in to help until I get word Brick and his men are down!" Quentin snarled. "I hope your team has a good explanation for putting civilians in danger."

"As do I," Oliver replied darkly. The whole point of their work as vigilantes was to keep the people of the Glades, and the rest of the city for that matter, safe, and leading them in an armed assault against enemies entrenched in a fortified position was exactly the opposite of what they were meant to do. "I'm on my way there now. Prep your men. And detective… make sure your EMTs bring a lot of body bags."

"Is that because of you or Brick?" Quentin asked seriously.

"Both," the Arrow, no, The Hood responded as he stored flechettes in the bracers around his wrists. "I've tried playing the hero and all its done is lead to suffering, and Brick's men are ruthless. They may not kill everyone, but…"

"But they don't care if they have to kill a few to spread fear," Quentin replied. "You know you're gonna lose the good faith you've earned by doing this, right?"

"I can be whatever the city needs me to be, Detective, and that includes the villain of the story," The Hood replied. "We'll talk again once this is done. S.C.P.D. rooftop." The Hood hung up before Quentin could speak again. He had thought long and hard on his way back from where he had been recovering following his duel with Ra's. He had lost because he had abandoned the killer instinct he had possessed when he first returned, the same killer instinct that allowed him to finally defeat Merlyn. Despite his words to Barry earlier in the year, he had started to fool himself into thinking he could be like Barry, be a hero rather than a vigilante. But heroes had to live by rules, by certain codes, and that included not killing those who deserved it, and that was the code Oliver had lived by for the past year some odd months.

But he couldn't do that anymore; his enemies were not Barry's enemies. His enemies used the law to protect themselves; they used good, innocent people as step ladders as they raced to the top of the pyramid of power in this city, a position left void by Merlyn for a time. The Hood didn't doubt for a moment the man had reclaimed his 'throne' upon returning full time to Starling City after he manipulated Thea into killing Sara. While there were enemies The Hood needn't kill, men like Merlyn and Ra's were the kind that needed to die, and he couldn't do that if he was pretending to be something he was not. If he was hunted, then so be it; it was time to remind this city why The Hood was so feared by criminals, whether they were street gangs or the so-called financial elite.

But unlike his so-called team, he wasn't going to let the civilians be in danger when he made his move.

**_*DC*_ **

The Hood crouched on the corner of a rooftop, looking down at the streets below. The battle had not gone well for the heroes and the citizens of the Glades. Over a dozen civilians lay dead on the streets, riddled with bullets or savagely beaten. A hero lay among them; Ted Grant had not gone quietly from the looks of it. Everyone else, civilian or hero (including Felicity who had been located in Dig's black van nearby), was zip-tied in a kneeling position as Brickwell approached, a jagged line cut into his head from something. Brickwell stopped in front of the bound heroes. "So, the Arrow's little crew tried to take me on without Daddy, eh?" Brickwell asked, a malicious smirk forming on his face. "Too bad for you Daddy wasn't around. With him, you might've stood a chance. Or maybe not, considering how much of a pussy he's become." Brickwell chuckled as The Hood heard a whoosh of displaced air and the crackle of electricity behind him before The Flash crouched beside him.

" **Thank you for coming on such short notice,** " the Hood said quietly as Brick continued to taunt the bound heroes and civilians, making a note to teach Laurel and Roy how to break their restraints (assuming they stuck around after they all had a little chat about this incident).

" _Anytime,_ " The Flash replied. " _I'm just glad you're alive, man._ "

" **They won't be when I'm done,** " the Hood replied darkly. " **I need you to disarm Brick's men and then get the civilians out of the line of fire. Cut the team loose. Leave the rest to me, and the team once they're free.** " The Flash took note of The Hood calling the bound heroes 'the team' rather than 'my team', but he didn't say anything; it wasn't his place.

" _On your signal,_ " The Flash replied.

The Hood watched as Brickwell signaled a man to step forward with an ornate box, from which he drew a pistol with a pearl grip. The Hood drew an arrow, one of the ones he had made specially for taking down Mirakuru soldiers. According to the report back at the base he had read on Diggle's run in with Brick, Diggle had shot the man right in the head and there'd been no reaction. Either Brick was the only Mirakuru soldier who didn't follow Slade's plans, or he was a metahuman with some kind of skin mutation.

The Hood nocked the arrow and drew back his bow, harkening back to his lessons with Yao Fei, Shado, and later Talia in Russia, the most important lesson of all being "Breathe." Brick raised his weapon and The Hood loosed his arrow, which flew straight and true. The arrow pierced Brick's hand, forcing him to drop his weapon as he gripped his wrist with his opposing hand. At the same time, The Flash disarmed Brick's men and began evacuating civilians, even as The Hood fired a zipline arrow and landed in a crouch in front of the now unbound heroes, who likewise rose to their feet with relieved smiles, triumphant glints in their eyes.

" **Daniel Brickwell,** " The Hood said, firing an explosive arrow at two men charging forward and throwing them back with first and second degree burns on their hands and face (not to mention smoking clothes), " **you have failed this city.** "

"Kill him!" Brick screamed at his men, hot-footing it away. The Hood fired an entrapment arrow (like the one he had used to keep the Restons from getting away with the cash they had grabbed during their second robbery in Starling) after the fleeing crime boss, ensaring his legs and bringing him down before focusing on the rushing horde. While Diggle (they really needed to get a codename for him) and Arsenal joined The Hood in the renewed street battle (this time only vigilantes versus bad guys), Laurel hung back beside Felicity from the few who got through the forceful trio the male members of the team was made up of, primarily to guard Felicity who had little to no combat training and had frozen up at the battle's renewal.

The Hood was like a whirlwind of violence, arrows flying from his quiver, flechettes from his wrists, always prepared to stab a flechette through the eye or throat of a gang member that got too close. He broke through the defensive line that had rushed him, the remainder being taken care of by Dig and Arsenal, and approached the struggling Brickwell calmly. " **This city is mine,** " The Hood told the struggling crime boss. " **It doesn't matter if it is downtown or the Glades. It's all under my protection, and if nothing else has been proven tonight, it is that I will always return to safeguard it against scum like you.** " The Hood approached and delivered a series of blows to Brick's skull, knocking the crime lord out.

"Arrow?" Arsenal asked slowly as his mentor turned, the brass-knuckle grip of his bow slick with the crime lord's blood. "Are you… okay?"

" **We'll speak about this later,** " The Hood replied briskly. " **Lance is expecting the call. I have something else I need to take care of.** " The Hood turned and fired a grappling arrow, quickly ascending to a nearby rooftop and disappearing, leaving a concerned group of heroes behind staring at the broken, bloodied mess that was Brick and his crew. Whatever their friend had been through since he had left to duel Ra's, it had awakened a side of him not seen since the Undertaking.

**_*DC*_ **

From a rooftop across the street from the loft he shared with his sister, The Hood watched as Malcolm Merlyn entered the apartment, Thea rising from the couch where she had been laying and speaking softly to him. The Hood had stopped at the Foundry to resupply and fired zipline arrow before gliding across the space between the two buildings on his bow, crashing through the window and falling into a roll, ducking the glass Thea had aimed at his head. Coming up in a crouch, he threw a special flechette at his sister, the needle puncturing her skin and pumping the sedative into her system. She collapsed, boneless, back onto the couch as The Hood rose from his crouch. " **You should've known this day would come,** " The Hood told the man who had essentially turned him into the man he was, even if Slade Wilson had been the one to make him into a killer. Without Merlyn bombing the Gambit, the Hood would never exist.

"I suspected you might one day turn on me despite it all, yes," Merlyn replied calmly, rising to face The Hood, "but I thought your love for Thea would at least keep you from doing so while the threat from Ra's remains. I know he defeated you; you need a teacher, someone who can train you to think like Ra's and defeat him at his own game. You still need me, Oliver."

" **Wrong,** " The Hood replied. " **My mistake was trying to play this game by yours and the League's rules.** " The Hood fired an arrow, which Merlyn caught only to realize it was a mild explosive arrow. He was thrown back by the explosion, blinded in one eye and his right hand ruined.

" **You signed your death warrant when you used my sister to kill Sara, Merlyn.** "

"So…" Malcolm gasped out, "you have… finally… reawakened your… killer instinct. But this… is not the… end." He struggled to his feet, glaring at Oliver with one aggrieved eye, the other having been ruined by the explosive arrow's shrapnel. "My… vengeance will… still… come to pass. The Glades… will be… destroyed." His deformed face twisted into a pained smirk. "I told you… that night… I always… have… redundancies."

The Hood shot an arrow into Malcolm's throat, and the man collapsed back on the coffee table, blood bubbling around the arrow and spreading across the glasswork. " **I'll lay your redundancy out right next to you, Malcolm,** " The Hood said coldly before turning and returning to the balcony.

It was time to have a pointed discussion with his team.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver put away his equipment and changed into his clothes before he even looked at his team, who were beginning to feel a little nervous at the lack of communication from the surly archer. Oliver stopped and looked at the Kris blade that was laying on the table, his hand brushing over it for a moment. "Malcolm Merlyn brought that by, claimed you were dead at the same time," Roy said. "Glad to see he was wrong."

"Oh, no, he was right," Oliver said, raising a hand to touch where the blade had pierced his chest. "Ra's crushed my trachea, put this sword through my right lung, and then kicked me off a cliff. Even with the snowfall, I fell well over a hundred feet. That would've caved in the back of my skull even if my other injuries didn't kill me." Oliver spoke in a flat, clinical fashion regarding his death. "Luckily… I've made some very powerful allies over the years, and they retrieved my body, brought me back."

"That's impossible," Diggle breathed.

"The same would've been said last year of super soldier serum from World War II and metahumans, and yet those both exist," Oliver replied. "To paraphrase an old story, there is more in heaven and earth, John, then is dreamt of in your philosophy." Oliver turned to face them now, and every single person in the room felt like flinching as they spotted the cold, dead look in his eyes. "Speaking of philosophies," Oliver said softly, "where in mine was it ever considered a good thing to endanger civilians like the four of you did tonight? Or deceive one of our closest allies?"

"Oliver, man, you need to think of the situation," Diggle said. "The mayor and the cops had given up, let Brick control the Glades. There were too many of them."

"That's no excuse," Oliver rebuked sharply. "I don't care if all you did was offer them a chance at payback and they showed up. I've taken on more than what Brick had with him tonight in the past and I've spent time with both you and Roy, John, training to make sure if I'm not here you can pick up the slack! You should've been able to handle it even without an army of civilians at your back. But more importantly, I started this crusade to get justice for those people without putting them in danger! All four of you spit on what might have been my legacy tonight, and I'm not going to forget it!" Oliver touched the blade on the table. "As for Merlyn, he's not going to be trouble anymore."

"What do you mean?" Diggle asked slowly.

"I finished what I started over a year ago and made sure he paid for his crimes," Oliver replied coolly. "Malcolm claimed he had another redundancy. That will be something to keep an eye out for, assuming any of you remain here after tonight." Oliver observed them coldly. "Why does Lance think he spoke to Sara when she's dead?"

"We needed his help and he wouldn't talk with us without you or Sara doing it," Felicity said. "I whipped up a modulator that let Laurel use Sara's voice when talking to Quentin."

"I see," Oliver replied calmly, too calmly. "Get out. You're done here."

"W-What?" Felicity stuttered out, hurt as she remembered the moment she and Oliver had had before he left to fight Ra's.

"There are lines you do not cross, Felicity, even with me, and that is one of them," Oliver said. "You're off this team. Go back to your work at Palmer Tech and stay there. But if I ever get a hint of something like that super-virus you created, I will put you down. Understood?" Felicity nodded rapidly, a sickly pale tint to her skin as she left on unsteady feet. Diggle looked about ready to say something and Oliver decided to nip that in the bud. "John, you leave, too," Oliver said before Diggle could say anything. “You need to decide where your loyalties lie. If they belong here, you will never put civilians in danger again or forget what the core reason for my crusade is. If not… it's been an honor, John."

Diggle left, his mind swirling with uncertainty and wondering how badly damaged Oliver's psyche was from what happened in his duel with Ra's (though he didn't believe for a second that Oliver had actually died and believed that Oliver was probably exaggerating his injuries to make a point). Roy and Laurel looked at one another uncertainly.

"Laurel, I'm going to be telling Quentin about Sara," Oliver said. "It's time he knew. The only question is, are you going to come with me or am I going to do this alone?"

"I-I'll come with you," Laurel said.

"I will, too," Roy said quietly. "Anything else we need to talk about?"

"We'll have to discuss a training schedule later," Oliver said. "I'm guessing you are going to do this with or without my help," he added, looking pointedly at Laurel, who looked sheepish but gave a firm nod. "Then I'm going to make sure you're ready. I know you won't be willing to kill, but there's plenty that can be done that isn't immediately fatal and will leave the bad guys unconscious or out of the fight." Laurel looked a little gratified at what Oliver had said, having wanted him to train her since day one; she was glad he had come around, but not glad that it had come at such a high cost. All those people, including Ted, dead because they had followed her, Roy, and John against Brick's better organized and fortified position. Never again, she vowed. "First thing I want to teach the both of you is how to escape bindings," Oliver added, and the two perked up. That would've come in handy earlier tonight.

"What about Ra's al Ghul?" Roy asked. "I'm guessing he's not just going to fade away now that Merlyn's dead."

"No, he probably isn't," Oliver replied. "But my mistake wasn't just that I lost the killer instinct that I had when I was The Hood. It was because I followed Merlyn's rules, Ra's' rules, the rules of the League. If Ra's al Ghul comes to this city looking for trouble, I'll meet him as what I really am."

Oliver looked at the display cases holding his uniform and equipment. "I'll meet him as the Emerald Archer."

The meeting the three would later have with Quentin would turn out to be very tense, with it taking several months before Quentin and Laurel were on pleasant speaking terms again. Oliver had trained hard with both Laurel and Roy, even teaching them a few tricks Talia had taught him, and when Ra's al Ghul came calling, the three of them were ready. Ra's was not killed, but he was driven back, and Oliver had earned his respect.

Diggle, meanwhile, rejoined the military, returning to a lifestyle where everything was clear cut and there were no shades of gray. He would eventually run afoul of a conniving general and be imprisoned in Leavenworth, before being recruited into Task Force X by Amanda Waller. He would be killed by Waller (who was later deposed as Director by a grieving Lyla Michaels) for disobeying an order to kill a civilian who had witnessed the Suicide Squad in action, Waller detonating the bomb in skull in response to this disobedience.

Felicity had continued working for Palmer Tech but found office work boring after being a part-time vigilante for so long, eventually taking up her old alias of Ghost Fox Goddess and attracting the attention of the so-called 'hacktivist' group Helix, which proved to be far more than a simple group of hacking vigilantes. Team Arrow 2.0 (consisting of Oliver, Roy, and Laurel), working in conjunction with Lyla and A.R.G.U.S., captured Helix's core membership, of which Felicity was an integral part, and imprisoned them in a deep, dark hole with no digital screens or anything else they could use to affect their own escape. Felicity would eventually escape courtesy of her own fugitive father and apprentice under him, eventually taking up his alias as The Calculator, a moniker which she would use in several encounters with Team Arrow 2.0 before the then-Green Arrow had finally caught up with her and fulfilled the promise he made her the day that he removed her from his team.

Thea would eventually remember what happened with Sara and use pills and alcohol to commit suicide, and just in time to avoid her biological father's redundancy kicking in. Tommy Merlyn had been recovered from his grave following his burial by agents of Malcolm and exposed to the waters of a Lazarus Pit. The Pit had brought back only Tommy's body, complete with his memories, but his soul remained trapped in the other world, and a rune burned into Tommy's shoulder blade (the bone, specifically) ensured that his soul could never be restored. Unwilling to give up on the hope their friend could be restored, neither Oliver nor Laurel were willing to kill Tommy, who became colloquially known by social media and online forums as 'the Dark Archer'.

Oliver would continue to bring a dark reckoning to the city's criminals, whether they were gangland scum or the financial elite profiting from the suffering of others. Laurel would find her own mission in the aftermath of revealing the truth to her father, using her Black Canary persona to pursue justice for everyone, not just battered women. The two would eventually find a way to begin their relationship anew, culminating in a double marriage with Barry Allen and Caitlin Snow (a planned one, at that). Roy would eventually move on from Thea and enter into a relationship with Sin, whom Laurel had taken in as a way to better honor the memory of her sister.

When the Justice League formed to stop the Dominator invasion, Oliver, Laurel, and Roy were at the forefront, Oliver being considered the 'dark' founder of the League compared to the light that practically shone out of Barry Allen and Kara Danvers.

The Golden Age of Heroism was ushered in despite the stumbling blocks placed by the likes of Eobard Thawne and the Council of Time Masters, all of whom learned one harsh reality that Oliver Queen had learned early on in his time in exile.

Fate is one nasty bitch.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this lengthier-than-normal one-shot.


End file.
